Wheaton, Ill. - The Thunder women's basketball held off a late push from a feisty North Park squad on Saturday for a 62-57 victory. With the victory, Wheaton improves to 14-4 overall and 8-1 in the CCIW. The loss drops North Park to 7-11 and 3-6 in the conference.

Wheaton found itself in trouble early, surrendering the first 18 points of the game until a pair of Hannah Frazier free throws with 2:16 left in the quarter. That sparked seven straight points from the Thunder as they were able to pull to within 22-10 at the end of the quarter.

The Thunder cut the lead down to single digits three minutes into the second quarter on a Kirsten Madsen lay-up, but the Vikings answered with a three-pointer to stake the lead back to 27-16 with 6:07 to play in the half. That would be the Vikings' final points of half, as Wheaton closed with a 8-0 run on consecutive three-pointers by Devin Kyler and Frazier and a lay-up by Myroth, cutting the lead to 27-24 at halftime.

Frazier opened the third quarter with back-to-back three-pointers to give Wheaton its first lead of the night at 30-29. The Vikings continued to battle, scoring the next six points to retake a five-point advantage. The Thunder fought back to take the lead once again using three-straight free throws by Frazier. A late three by Hannah Williams and an Emily Nerem free throw staked the hosts to a 44-42 lead at the end of the third.

An early Kristi Demski three-pointer helped Wheaton start the fourth quarter strong as the Thunder pushed out to their largest lead of the night at 57-48 on Madsen's lay-up with just under six minutes to play. North Park was able to hang within seven and closed the gap to 60-57 with less than a minute to play. Wheaton came up with a defensive stop when it needed it most and Frazier iced the game at the free throw line for the 62-57 victory.

Hannah Frazier led the Thunder with a massive 28-point, 16-rebound double-double to go with seven blocks and four assists. Kirsten Madsen added a career-best nine points and Jordan Myroth tallied eight points, seven rebounds, and six assists. Wheaton posted its second-highest block total of the season with 17 blocked shots. Jayla Johnson led the Vikings with 22 points and eight rebounds.

Wheaton will be back in action on Wednesday night with the Thunder head north for a 7 pm tipoff at Carroll University.

Note Worthy: With her third rebound of the night, Devin Kyler became just the sixth player in program history with 700 career rebounds.